Chishti abducted, beaten: Challenge for Pakistan

Ali Chishti, who writes for The Friday Times, has gone public in
Islamabad with details of his abduction and beating last Friday, August 30.
Chishti is making the rounds of TV talk shows describing how he was picked up
in Karachi by uniformed police driving a police vehicle, blindfolded, switched
to another police vehicle, taken to a small room somewhere in Karachi, and
beaten by men he does not think were police officers. After nine hours, he was
dropped by the side of the road at 4:30 Saturday morning.

Physical abuse of journalists is not
uncommon in Pakistan, but this high-profile exposure of an attack in the heart
of the country's largest city challenges the government of Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif to address the violence aimed at journalists in Pakistan. There have
been six deaths so far this year; four were journalists caught in
bombings, and two were targeted killings for which no clear motive has yet been
established by CPJ.

Chishti says he is convinced the
police were operating on behalf of a third party, but he has declined to make
further accusations. "They know who the masterminds are behind this attack. It
is up to the police to identify them," Chishti told CPJ this morning. (Read Chishti's full account here.)

Chishti usually writes about security
and intelligence matters for The Friday Times -- always a dangerous beat for reporters
in Pakistan. "My star Friday Times
reporter in Karachi," his editor Najam Sethi called him in a tweet about the incident. His most recent Times article, Textbooks and
tolerance, is
critical of textbooks used in Sindh that vilify the Hindu minority in Pakistan.
Some of Chishti's recent posts on his
IT company's web site analyze MQM politics (the Mutahida Qaumi Movement is Pakistan's third largest political
party, with its power base in Karachi) -- another
dangerous zone -- and reason enough to pull out of Karachi to Islamabad. For a broader
understanding of the threats journalists work under in Karachi and the rest of Pakistan,
read Elizabeth Rubin's excellent report Roots of Impunity: Pakistan's Endangered Press
and the Perilous Web of Militancy, Security, and Politics.

When I spoke with him this morning, Chishti
made it clear he is not accusing any group of being behind his abduction. He
just wants the police to investigate and prosecute the officers who seized him
and handed him over to his interrogators.

In Islamabad, Chishti weighed his
options with colleagues before deciding to go public. In the last few years, Pakistani journalists have increasingly taken
that path. Rather than remain silent, or maybe
quietly share the details of the incident with a few friends, or send an email
with the subject line "If I am killed . . .," many have reported about the
threats they've received.

Umar Cheema
set the standard. A reporter with Islamabad's The News, he was abducted in September 2010 by unknown assailants
who stripped, beat, and photographed him in humiliating positions. Almost
immediately after he was released, Cheema went on television to tell the world what
happened at the hands of "men in police commando uniforms." Cheema's refusal
to stay silent has drawn much attention to the widespread anti-press violence
in Pakistan.

The Sharif government should consider
its next step carefully. In Cheema's case, as in many others, a highly
publicized series of special investigations melted away with no substantive
action taken by the authorities. In
the high-profile murder of Saleem Shahzad in 2011, CPJ voiced its skepticism
about such special tribunals -- see Justice for
Saleem Shahzad? We've seen this before...

In this case, the government must ensure that the police carry
out an investigation, perhaps with the oversight of the judiciary, and that the
police officers involved identify the people who ordered the abduction and all be
brought to justice. That would be an important first step for the Pakistan
government in reversing the country's terrible record
of impunity when it comes to journalists being
threatened, harassed, beaten and killed.

Bob Dietz, coordinator of CPJ’s Asia Program, has reported across the continent for news outlets such as CNN and Asiaweek. He has led numerous CPJ missions, including ones to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Follow him on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.

Comments

DID he mentioned what questioned he was asked during his abduction? it will clear the whole fog as Mr Ali Kamran chishti is involve in blunders to political parties and some corporate sector... I am sure its just his personal matter. Please dont abuse Journalism.

Ali K. Chishti is one of the few respectable and very aggressive journalist and analyst who has huge piles of information on National Security, Afghanistan, Terrorism, Jihadist Movements and politics of Balochistan and Sindh. The attack and kidnapping of his shows how dangerous it has become in Pakistan. This is a high-profile kidnapping and needs to be taken seriously.